NOAA Proposes Rule to Reduce Charter Halibut Catch

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Dec. 22, 2008

NOAA Proposes Rule to Reduce Charter Halibut Catch

NOAA today proposed reducing the number of halibut that charter vessel anglers in southeast Alaska can keep, from two each day to one.

“Sport charter fishing has grown in southeast Alaska while halibut abundance has decreased,” said Doug Mecum, NOAA’s Fisheries Service acting regional administrator for Alaska. "We’re proposing to reduce the charter halibut catch to protect the halibut resource."

The proposed rule, which would take effect this spring, would allow each charter vessel client to use only one fishing line, and no more than six lines targeting halibut would be allowed on a charter vessel at one time. The rule would prohibit guides and crew from catching and retaining halibut while charter halibut clients are on board.

NOAA’s Fisheries Service put a similar rule in place last spring, but sport charter halibut operators challenged it on procedural grounds and the agency withdrew the rule.

Public comment on the proposed rule is open through Jan. 21, 2009. After considering public comment, NOAA expects to publish a final rule in the spring of 2009. To read the proposed rule and see how to submit comments, click here. http://alaskafisheries.noaa.gov/prules/73fr78276.pdf

DATES: Comments must be received no
later than January 21, 2009.
ADDRESSES: Send comments to Sue
Salveson, Assistant Regional
Administrator, Sustainable Fisheries
Division, Alaska Region, NMFS, Attn:
Ellen Sebastian. You may submit
comments, identified by ‘‘RIN 0648–
AX17’’ by any one of the following
methods:
• Electronic Submissions: Submit all
electronic public comments via the
Federal eRulemaking Portal website at
http://www.regulations.gov.
• Mail: P. O. Box 21668, Juneau, AK
99802.
• Fax: (907) 586–7557.
• Hand delivery to the Federal
Building: 709 West 9th Street, Room
420A, Juneau, AK.

Charter halibut operators in southeast Alaska waters have exceeded their guideline harvest level of 1.43 million pounds for the past four years. The actual sport charter harvest was 1.75 million pounds in 2004, 1.95 million pounds in 2005, 1.86 million pounds in 2006, and 1.92 million pounds in 2007. The guideline harvest level dropped to 0.93 million pounds for 2008. Managers expect that it will have been exceeded for 2008 when the harvest numbers are final.

The International Pacific Halibut Commission, with representatives from the U.S. and Canada, annually estimates halibut abundance in each halibut fishing area along the Pacific Coast. NOAA’s Fisheries Service, in cooperation with the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, establishes the charter vessel guideline harvest levels based on the commission’s abundance estimates.

The commission annually establishes the commercial halibut fishery catch limits in each area, taking into account charter vessel harvests and other sources of halibut mortality in order to protect the halibut resource from overharvest.

The commission has reduced the commercial halibut catch in southeast Alaska from nearly 11 million pounds annually between 2004 and 2006 to just over 6 million pounds for 2008. The final commercial harvest level for 2009, proposed at 4.5 million pounds, will be set by the International Pacific Halibut Commission in January.

NOAA Proposes Rule to Reduce Charter Halibut Catch

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Dec. 22, 2008

NOAA Proposes Rule to Reduce Charter Halibut Catch

NOAA today proposed reducing the number of halibut that charter vessel anglers in southeast Alaska can keep, from two each day to one.

“Sport charter fishing has grown in southeast Alaska while halibut abundance has decreased,” said Doug Mecum, NOAA’s Fisheries Service acting regional administrator for Alaska. "We’re proposing to reduce the charter halibut catch to protect the halibut resource."

The proposed rule, which would take effect this spring, would allow each charter vessel client to use only one fishing line, and no more than six lines targeting halibut would be allowed on a charter vessel at one time. The rule would prohibit guides and crew from catching and retaining halibut while charter halibut clients are on board.

NOAA’s Fisheries Service put a similar rule in place last spring, but sport charter halibut operators challenged it on procedural grounds and the agency withdrew the rule.

Public comment on the proposed rule is open through Jan. 21, 2009. After considering public comment, NOAA expects to publish a final rule in the spring of 2009. To read the proposed rule and see how to submit comments, click here.

Charter halibut operators in southeast Alaska waters have exceeded their guideline harvest level of 1.43 million pounds for the past four years. The actual sport charter harvest was 1.75 million pounds in 2004, 1.95 million pounds in 2005, 1.86 million pounds in 2006, and 1.92 million pounds in 2007. The guideline harvest level dropped to 0.93 million pounds for 2008. Managers expect that it will have been exceeded for 2008 when the harvest numbers are final.

The International Pacific Halibut Commission, with representatives from the U.S. and Canada, annually estimates halibut abundance in each halibut fishing area along the Pacific Coast. NOAA’s Fisheries Service, in cooperation with the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, establishes the charter vessel guideline harvest levels based on the commission’s abundance estimates.

The commission annually establishes the commercial halibut fishery catch limits in each area, taking into account charter vessel harvests and other sources of halibut mortality in order to protect the halibut resource from overharvest.

The commission has reduced the commercial halibut catch in southeast Alaska from nearly 11 million pounds annually between 2004 and 2006 to just over 6 million pounds for 2008. The final commercial harvest level for 2009, proposed at 4.5 million pounds, will be set by the International Pacific Halibut Commission in January.

Bush fights to loosen fishery rules!

The Alaska commercial fishing industry wants changes to the environmental review process, which is now done by federal agencies. Read the whole story @
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1208/16321.html

Governor Appoints Johnstone to Board of Fisheries

December 5, 2008, Anchorage, Alaska – Governor Sarah Palin today appointed Karl Johnstone to the Alaska Board of Fisheries.

The Board of Fisheries’ main role is to conserve and develop the fishery resources of the state. This involves setting seasons, bag limits, methods and means for the state’s subsistence, commercial, sport, guided sport, and personal use fisheries, and it also involves setting policy and direction for the management of the state’s fishery resources. The board is charged with making allocation decisions while the Department of Fish and Game is responsible for management based on those decisions.

“Alaska’s fisheries are a vital part of our culture and economy, which makes sound management critical,” Governor Palin said. “Karl will be a strong voice for protection of the resource and fairness to all users. His experience and judgment will be as asset to the board as they address many fishery management challenges.”

Johnstone, of Anchorage, is a retired superior court judge who has been an active sport fisherman in Alaska since 1967. He fished commercially for salmon in Bristol Bay and herring in Prince William Sound and Southeast Alaska in the 1980s. Johnstone earned a bachelor’s degree in business and a juris doctorate in law from the University of Arizona. He practiced law until 1979 when he was appointed superior court judge. Johnstone was appointed Presiding Judge of the Third Judicial District in 1990 and served in that position until his retirement. Since then he has had a limited practice as a lawyer, mediator and arbitrator.

Johnstone fills a public seat on the board left vacant when Jeremiah Campbell of Seward resigned. His term will run through June 30, 2009.

The halibut fisheries industrial complex!

The halibut fisheries industrial complex has determined that it is easier to restrict the sport fisherman than it is to conduct an environmentally responsible commercial enterprise. Eliminate the other user groups before their strip mining of the ocean correlation can be recognized for what it is, wanton waste of an apparent endless supply of fish. The commercial fishing complex wastes twice as much halibut than is taken by all of the sportfisherman inside or out side of Alaska combined.
The problem is not the tourist from Iowa wanting to take home his second halibut, it is a commercial fishing industry that refuses to fish responsibly. The commercial fishing fleet off of Alaska is clear-cutting the oceans for profit. It seems to me that it is high time for the local commercial fishermen of Alaska to stand up for their industry and stop allowing the strip-mining of the ocean for corporate profit. The mom and pop sport and commercial fishermen should work together to reduce bycatch and other wasteful practices that will ultimately result in more and more scrutiny from outside forces. Lets worry about the Alaskan small businesses that depend on a fair and equitable approach to regulation of our natural resources.

Halibut industry braces for more limits on their catch

By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce
Halibut longliners and charter operators, particularly those in Southeast Alaska, are bracing for further cuts in catch limits when the International Pacific Halibut Commission meets Jan. 13-16 in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The IPHC staff in late November recommended that the overall catch from the U.S. West Coast to the Bering Sea be trimmed from the 60.4 million pounds in 2008 to 54 million pounds in 2009.
The proposed 10 percent harvest reduction comes in the wake of a 9 percent decrease in the allowable harvest in 2008.
The biggest recommended reduction would be in regulatory area 2C, in Southeast Alaska, where the recommendation is to cut the catch limit from 6.21 million pounds to 4.47 million pounds.
In Area 3A, in Southcentral Alaska, the recommendation is to cut catch limits from 24.22 million pounds to 22.53 million pounds.
Alaska's western gulf region, area 3B, would see an increased allowable catch, up from 10.90 million pounds in 2008 to 11.67 million pounds in 2009.
Linda Behnken, executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association in Sitka, said halibut longline fishermen in Southeast Alaska “were pretty well staggered” by the IPHC staff recommendations.
“We were braced for 10 to 15 percent reduction; (but) everyone will lose another 28 percent of their quota,” Behnken said. “Some people who are still making payments (on individual fishing quota shares) will probably not be able to make payments. There are limited lenders for quota share to begin with. At current quota share prices, I'm sure people will be looking for options to allow them to make payments and still hold on to their shares. Some have put out their vessels or homes as collateral.”
Behnken noted that the IPHC is still predicting that abundance levels will start turning back up, but that's not likely to happen until 2011, so this year and next year, there could be further cuts.
“Stock assessments are not publicly available yet, so we have not had the opportunity to look at the data that led to the recommendation for the 28 percent reduction,” Behnken said. “When we get the assessment, we will pour through it and no doubt have questions.”
The proposed harvest cuts also have raised concerns from subsistence and resident sport fishermen about the impact the charter fleet is having on the commercial fleet's access to the resource, said Behnken, who said the charter operators have exceeded their guideline harvest level every year for the past five years.
Kimberly Tebrugge, an Olympia, Wash.-based publicist for Southeast Alaska's charter halibut task force, said the charter fleet was disappointed in the recommendations, and expects federal fisheries officials to announce a one-fish rule for Southeast charter clients any day now.
“It's challenging, because in recreational fishing most people book a year in advance, and (now) anglers don't know how many fish they can catch on a daily basis,” she said.
As for the Southeast Alaska charter fleet exceeding its guideline harvest level five years in a row, Tebrugge said, “It was a guideline; not an allocation. Sport fishermen can't monitor how much fish a recreational fisherman can catch.”
Tebrugge also argued that, pound for pound, sport fishing has a better economic benefit to Southeast Alaska than the longline fishery.
The battle for fish between the longline sector and charter sector has been waged for years before the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. Both sides have argued the significant economic benefit of their industries to coastal economies.
Bob Ward, who has operated Award Charters out of Homer for more than two decades, was part of the council task force that thought they had resolved the issue several years ago, having worked out an individual fishing quota for halibut charters.
Behnken was serving on the council at the time and supported the plan. She spoke out numerous times as a council member on the importance of sharing the conservation burden to protect the halibut resource.
Then the federal Department of Commerce failed to give the plan its stamp of approval when charter operators who had entered the fishery after the fact complained they would not be included.
“I still believe the quota program will work for the charters,” Ward said.
Ward said that in 2007, charter operators in Southcentral Alaska were over their guideline harvest level by 10 percent to 13 percent. But in 2008, the harvest declined because of the number of clients carried and halibut caught.
Over the past summer there were a lot fewer recreational vehicles stopping in Homer and a lot of those that did come did not go out on charters, he said. In general, because of the economy and the price of fuel, there was less business for the area's charter fleet, he said.
Still, state Department of Fish and Game officials might slap an annual limit of six halibut on charter customers, based on statistics that showed them exceeding the guideline harvest level in 2007, Ward said.
Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com">margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com.